Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners: / with Dissertations on the Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare; on a Collection of Popular Tales Entitled Gesta Romanorum; and on the English Morris dance.

by Francis Douce

ACT III.

Scene 2. Page 82.

Her. ... since he came,
With what encounter so uncurrent I
Have strain'd to appear thus.

Dr. Johnson, not understanding these lines, "with the licence of all editors," pronounces them unintelligible. However strange the language may appear in the mouth of a lady, there is hardly a doubt that it is a metaphor taken from tilting. Hermione means to say, I appeal to your own conscience whether since Polixenes came, I have made any violent or irregular encounter unlike that of a fair courser; or, in plainer terms, whether I have deviated from the paths of honour and forcibly obtruded myself on this tribunal. Those who made an encounter at justs were called runners; and were said, occasionally, to run foul. This may serve to explain what is meant by uncurrent.